Then-futuristic computer banks, now-classic cars and a Sydney skyline without the Opera House are all part of a new book taken from Nathan Mete’s popular ‘Retro Sydney’ Instagram account
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A couple take in the view of Sydney Harbour from the southern pylon lookout on the Harbour Bridge in the early 1950s.
Photograph: Max Dupain
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A trainee data-entry clerk inputting information into the new IBM 1401 super-computer in the AMP building in Circular Quay, 1963.
Photograph: Robert Donaldson
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Milsons Point patrons have a swim and a lie in the sun at the North Sydney olympic pool, against the backdrops of Sydney Harbour and the Harbour Bridge during the summer of 1956.
AdvertisementPhotograph: National Archives of Australia
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The original Sydney markets at Haymarket as shopkeepers and merchants load their trucks and vans with fresh produce in 1975.
Photograph: National Archives of Australia
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Girls wait for their auditions for go-go dancing at the Motel Kings Cross in Bayswater Road, Potts Point, beside a Nissan Fairlady 1600 Roadster in 1966.
Photograph: David Cumming
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The driver of an HQ Premier at the new ‘drive-thru bottle-o’ at the High Flyer hotel in Condell Park, 1975.
Photograph: National Archives of Australia
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Pitt Street during the evening peak at dusk in 1981.
Photograph: National Archives of Australia
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A 501 bus heads to the intersection of Pitt and Park streets in the city while, above it, the new TNT Harbourlink monorail is on a test run in May 1988. It was closed in 2013.
Photograph: John Ward/City of Sydney Archives
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A Sydney RSL taxi on William Street during construction work on the Kings Cross tunnel, now part of the Cross City tunnel.
Photograph: State of New South Wales
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A 225 bus heads up from Neutral Bay Wharf in 1970. The shops at left are still there today.
AdvertisementPhotograph: John Ward/City of Sydney Archives
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The Whisky a Go Go club in William Street, 1967.
Photograph: Robert Donaldson
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The club Sammy Lee’s on Oxford Street, Paddington, in 1953.
Photograph: National Archives of Australia
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Dirt roads, open air and signs of freshly planted trees signal a new housing development in Bankstown in 1954.
Photograph: Max Dupain/Mitchell State library
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The new Qantas House at Chifley Square, 1958. Its curved façade, or ‘curtain wall’ design, won acclaim.
Photograph: Max Dupain and Jill White/Mitchell State library
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People queue to buy an afternoon paper at a newspaper stand in Martin Place, 1983.
Photograph: National Archives of Australia
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The newly completed MLC building and the Centrepoint Tower amid its construction in 1978, before opening in 1981.
Photograph: National Archives of Australia
